Business Briefs

Friday

A proposal before the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation could lower premiums by $13.6 million for local governments.

COLUMBUS

BWC board considering plan to reduce premiums

A proposal before the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation could lower premiums by $13.6 million for local governments.

The plan would reduce premiums by an average of 5?percent beginning in January for Ohio’s 3,900 cities, counties and other local governments. Public-sector groups’ reduction could be larger or smaller. For example, counties and school districts would see a reduction of 6?percent, the bureau said.

The bureau’s board of directors could vote on the plan late next month.

COLUMBUS

Survey forecasts record spending for Halloween

Americans are not letting a fragile economy scare them away from Halloween spending this year, according to a National Retail Federation survey.

Americans plan to spend a record $72.31 on the holiday, up from $66.28 last year and the highest the federation has found in 10?years of the survey.

The breakdown: $26.52 on costumes, $21.05 on candy, $19.79 on decorations and $4.96 on greeting cards.

More than two-thirds of those surveyed said the sluggish economy would not affect their spending plans.

The survey of 9,374 Americans was conducted by BIGResearch in Worthington.

M cLEAN, VA.

Mortgage rates drop to lowest levels on record

Mortgage rates continued to set records, with averages for the week that ended yesterday at their lowest levels ever.

The national average for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 4.01?percent yesterday, down from 4.09?percent the week before, according to Freddie Mac. The average 15-year, fixed-rate loan averaged 3.28 percent, down from 3.29 percent.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Bank of America to charge $5 monthly debit-card fee

Bank of America Corp. plans to charge customers a $5 monthly fee for making debit-card purchases, the bank said yesterday.

The fee, to be implemented early next year, applies to customers who use their debit cards to make purchases in a given month. It won’t apply to customers with certain premium accounts, those who don’t buy anything or those who use the cards only for ATM transactions.

— From staff, wire reports

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